Good late morning, afternoon from Washington DC.  Before I make my way out to the airport to fly back home to London, I thought I would catch up on some of the weekend's news.Speaking of travel, over the years our correspondent in Russia, Grigory Pasko, has done an inordinate amount of reporting on this blog about the unfortunate conditions of the roads in so many parts of the regions.  Though perhaps peculiar to an outsider, anyone who has traveled to Russia and bothered to get outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, would understand our fixation on this routine minutae of transportation infrastructure. By comparison, I recall driving along ...

Lindsay Corporation (LNN) reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $0.42 per share, beating our expectations of $0.34 per share and market expectations of $0.25 per share. The company has been successful in cutting personnel as well as other operating expenses through its cost-reduction initiatives implemented in the first three quarters of fiscal 2009.The company posted revenue of $84.6 million for the quarter, compared to $143.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008. Current global economic conditions are adversely impacting the company's businesses. Irrigation equipment revenue declined 45%, and Infrastructure revenue was down 21% year-over-year. In the Irrigation segment, Lindsay witnessed a 47% drop in domestic sales and 40% drop in international revenue. Management stated that despite an improvement in agricultural commodity prices, farmers have stayed away from purchasing capital goods due to the prevailing uncertain market conditions.The Infrastructure business is highly ...

The five best performing stocks on the Zacks #1 Rank List last week were: LaBranche & Co. Inc. (...

DRI Corporation (NASD: TBUS), a digital communications technology leader in the domestic and international surface transportation and transit security markets, recently announced that the company’s chief executive officer, David L. Turney, presented earlier this week at The Wall Street Analyst Forum in New York City. During his presentation, Mr. Turney stated, “For a company our size, we have an incredibly large footprint and our products are used in more than 55 countries.”

Mr. Turney further commented that, “Over 60 percent of our revenues are derived from the transit vehicle builder and the other 40 percent comes from end users, such as the New York Transit Authority.”

DRI’s market share is currently 45 percent domestically and 55 percent internationally, which provides significant insulation from current economic conditions in the United States. In addition, the majority of the company’s customer base is derived from blue chip companies that provide further stability for continued

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China's factory and property spending growth accelerated in July, fueled by rebuilding after the Sichuan earthquake in May and snowstorms in January and February. Urban fixed-asset investment rose 27.3 percent to 7.22 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) year on year in July, according to the latest data from the Chinese statistics bureau, after gaining 26.8 percent in the first half. China is at the present time busy rebuilding roads, power lines, factories and homes after the worst snowstorms in half a century and an earthquake that killed more than 69,000 people.Railway spending climbed 35.8 percent in the first seven months to 105 billion yuan, up from 20.4 percent for the first half. China plans to spend 3.8 trillion yuan on transportation infrastructure in its five-year plan running through 2010.Growth in spending in real-estate development slowed to 30.9 percent ...

Digital Recorders Inc. (TBUS) is a digital communications technology company in the domestic and international public transportation and transit security markets. Incorporated in 1983 in North Carolina, they list on the NASDAQ as part of the Communication Equipment industry. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company’s market capitalization is $31.28M. Digital Recorders Inc.’s products help increase the mobility, flow, safety, and security of people who rely upon transportation infrastructure.

Digital Recorders Inc. provides real-time information that helps users and operators of transit, bus, and rail vehicles in their many functions. This would include locating, identifying, boarding, tracking, scheduling, and managing these types of vehicles. People use Digital Recorders’ proprietary hardware and software applications in attending to the above functions. Their products also help transit vehicle operators increase ridership and use less fuel, as well as lessen security risks on transit vehicles due to better communications.

The company’s products include their TwinVision® and

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Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow23 June 2008 Investment climate is steady as new leader continues reform agenda Russia’s equity markets are enjoying the country’s honeymoon period under its new leadership, but investors remain wary of how the power-sharing arrangement will evolve.The changing of the guard on May 7 saw Vladimir Putin hand over the presidential mantle to his protégé Dmitry Medvedev. Within hours, Medvedev had nominated his mentor Putin as Prime Minister.The smooth choreography proved to be a fillip for Russia’s main stock markets and sparked a buying spree by foreign funds.The MSCI Russia Index was the best performing emerging equity market last month, rising 15.7%, and outperforming the MSCI EM Emea index, which rose 7.3% in the same month. Inflows recorded in the third week of May of $542m (€350m) were the highest in Russia ...